Yeah your brewing seems okay, I'd maybe use boiling water though. usually darjeelings are described as having a fresh, fruity, "muscatel" (i always consider like cologne) aroma, maybe it was bad tea but I'd probably try another 1st flush darjeeling maybe from a different vendor and see if its the similar. Darjeelings are kind of love/hate teas.

My first flush Darjeeling leaves smells roasted when dry and have a fresh mint/liquorice smell when wet. I think it depends both on the tea and your own associations. Cooked vegetables is not a smell I would find weird in tea. I don't if a Darjeeling is supposed to smell like that but some greens I've tasted did. According the taste, I would recommend you to play around with the brewing paramenters. Try 60 degress celcius. Try 70. Try 90. And let it sit only for 30 seconds. Or 1 minute. Or 1½ minute. But the best thing you can do if you want to get to know first flushes, is of course to try other ones.

I feel like I've experienced a little bit of that vegetal character as well, and its understandable as many darjeelings seem pretty green. Asparagus is an interesting idea, I'll have to look for that when tasting. I've personally found that I prefer more fruity darj's.

greenisgood wrote:I feel like I've experienced a little bit of that vegetal character as well, and its understandable as many darjeelings seem pretty green. Asparagus is an interesting idea, I'll have to look for that when tasting. I've personally found that I prefer more fruity darj's.

I notice a definite greeness in Adagio Spring Darjeeling, but yet it doesn't taste vegetal, it's more of a green oolong taste.

Trioxin wrote:Some Darjeelings do have an "asparagus" type taste and smell that will settle down after the fist brew. Usually its the higher end "tippy"ones. I myself search these out.

Well there is a lot of variation among different FF Darjeelings, but in my experience this very vegetal, asparagusy taste is characteristic of the more expensive ones. I love it, but it doesn't usually seem to last more than one or two infusions.